California State University East Bay Partners With Cognii to Offer Artificial Intelligence Powered Online Learning

Cognii's Virtual Learning Assistant technology will provide intelligent tutoring and assessments to students in a chatbot-style conversation

Press Release-
updated: Apr 14, 2017

HAYWARD, CA,
April 14, 2017 (Newswire.com) -
​​​​​​​Cal State East Bay, a top-tier public university, and Cognii Inc., a leading provider of artificial intelligence-based educational technologies, today announced a partnership. Cognii will work with Cal State East Bay to develop a new learning and assessment experience, powered by Cognii’s Virtual Learning Assistant technology.

Winner of the 2016 EdTech Innovation of the Year Award from Mass Technology Leadership Council for its unique use of conversational AI and Natural Language Processing technologies in education, Cognii VLA provides automatic grading to students’ open-response answers along with qualitative feedback that guides them towards conceptual mastery. Compared to the multiple choice tests, open-response questions are considered pedagogically superior for measuring students’ critical thinking and problem solving skills, essential for 21st century jobs.

Students at Cal State East Bay will use the Cognii-powered interactive tutorials starting in summer as part of the online transfer orientation course. The interactive questions and tutorials will be developed collaboratively by Cognii team and the eLearning specialists from the university’s office of the Online Campus. Students will interact with the questions in a chatbot-style natural language conversation during the formative assessment stage. As students practice the tutorials, Cognii will generate rich learning analytics and proficiency measurements for the course leaders.

As AI transforms a number of industries, we are committed to bringing its benefits to the public education systems.

Dee Kanejiya

Founder & CEO, Cognii

“We are excited to partner with Cognii as we find ways to engage students and participate in the Cal State 2025 initiative to increase the graduation rates of our freshmen and transfer students,” said Dr. Roger Wen, senior director of the university’s Office of the Online Campus. “I believe there are some positive implications of using artificial intelligence for online learning - specifically for the drill and practice, large enrollment classes, or specific subjects. With the encouragement from the Chancellor's' office, we have selected Cognii as our partner for developing the innovative use of AI in our online courses.”

Dee Kanejiya, founder and CEO of Cognii stated, “We are delighted to partner with California State University East Bay, one of the top universities in online education. As AI transforms a number of industries, we are committed to bringing its benefits to the public education systems. Through this partnership, we are looking forward to creating a new learning experience for large online introductory courses in higher education.”

About California State University East Bay

Cal State East Bay is one of America’s premier public universities and part of the California State University system that educates 474,000 students every year. Cal State East Bay is known for its award winning programs, expert instruction, a highly personalized learning environment — and a choice of more than 100 career-focused fields of study. With two scenic campuses — one in the Hayward Hills overlooking San Francisco Bay and the other in the Concord foothills of Mt. Diablo — plus a professional center in dynamic downtown Oakland, Cal State East Bay is where all your possibilities come into view.

About Cognii

Cognii is a leading provider of Artificial Intelligence based educational technologies to the K-12, Higher Ed, and corporate training markets. Cognii is the winner of 2016 EdTech Innovation of the Year Award and the 2015 Best Learning Assessment Innovation of the Year Award. Cognii’s Virtual Learning Assistant engages students in an intelligent tutoring conversation while providing instant assessment of their open-response answers. Cognii improves students’ learning outcomes and teachers’ productivity with rich learning analytics, and helps organizations reduce the cost of delivering high-quality education at a large scale. Based in Boston, Mass., Cognii’s mission is to improve the quality and affordability of education with the help of advanced technologies.